Florence Marryat (1838-1899) was a famous author of her era,
producing over ninety novels.
She edited the monthly publication "London Society", and was a
newspaper and magazine
correspondent as well as a playwright, operatic singer, actress and journalism
school instructor.

In "There Is No Death" she gives an account of her 15 years of
experience with materialization mediums on both sides of the Atlantic, including watching her materialized
daughter, Florence, who died shortly after birth, grow from a small shy four year old child to a
beautiful 19 year old woman.

She took up her station
against the drawing-room wall, with her arms extended as if she
were crucified. Then the gas-burners were turned on to their full extent in a room about sixteen feet square. The effect upon Katie
King was marvelous. She looked like herself for the space of a
second only, then she began gradually to melt away. I can compare
the dematerialization of her form to nothing but a wax doll melting
before a hot fire. First, the features became blurred and indistinct;
they seemed to run into each other. The eyes sunk in the sockets,
the nose disappeared, the frontal bone fell in. Next the limbs
appeared to give way under her, and she sank lower and lower on
the carpet like a crumbling edifice. At last there was nothing but
her head left above the ground - then a heap of white drapery only,
which disappeared with a whisk, as if a hand had pulled it after her -
and we were left staring by the light of three gasburners at the spot
on which Katie King had stood....Florence Marryat's
experience with the famous materialized Katie King

The very
next spirit that appeared was my rough friend's mother, and his astonishment and
emotion at seeing her were very unmistakable. When first he went up to the
cabinet and saw her his head drooped, and his shoulders shook with the sobs he
could not repress. ...then I saw him bringing her up to me. "I don't
understand it," he replied. "It seems too marvelous to be true; but how can I
disbelieve it, when here she is?"...
a skeptics old mother
materializes

A classic volume published in 1924 dealing with spirit obsession. Dr.Wickland
was a psychiatrist who cured many mental illnesses caused by spirit obsession due to
earthbound discarnate entities. Dr. Wickland's wife Anna was a psychic sensitive
to whom these entities would drawn and could speak through. The book is largely
a collection of some of the actual verbatim conversations grouped into various
subjects such as marriage disturbances, crime, suicide, narcotics and inebriety,
orphans, selfishness, and orthodoxy.Download "Thirty Years Among the Dead"
(350K zipped)

"The object of the work is to present to those who have neither the leisure, the
opportunity, nor the means to investigate for themselves, a compact story of the
exhibition of what is called the direct voice through the mediumship of Mrs. Etta
Wriedt of Detroit, Michigan, USA, when she visited England in the spring and
summer of 1912 and 1913 at my invitation."

"I address myself specially to those that mourn, who may, by these pages, which give
evidence of the return of the dead, be, in some measure, consoled by reflecting on the
proximity of the spirits of those they have lost, and who, they may rest assured, are
watching over them and awaiting reunion."

One of the works of spiritualistic champion Sir Arthur Conan Doyle putting forth
the message of the survival of man after physical death.

The most marked property of this ectoplasm, very fully illustrated in the
photographs, is that it sets or curdles into the shapes of human members--of
fingers, of hands, of faces, which are at first quite sketchy and rudimentary,
but rapidly coalesce and develop until they are undistinguishable from those of
living beings....Dr.
Geeley's Experiments

Henry S. Olcott, cofounder of the Theosophical Society, was a hardnosed
investigative lawyer and agricultural scientist who accepted the assignment of two New York newspapers to investigate the spirit materializations being
produced by the Eddy brothers of Chittenden,Vermont in 1874. During his sixteen
week investigation Olcott witnessed the materialization of over 400 different
entities
from the next realm of existence. His reports, together with Sir William Crookes
similar
experiences, produced a sensation throughout the United States and Europe. Olcott's
careful observations and tests have
been
called one of the most thorough and meticulous
ever undertaken of the phenomena.
A shorter part two of the book deals with Olcott's
tests of the Holmes' of Philadelphia through
whom
the famous Katie King and John King
personalities were manifesting.

But what these gentlemen do not consider, and what makes them
appear so ridiculous, in the eyes of those who are brave enough to investigate these curious
facts in the
judicial spirit, is that these phenomena that have taken place are at the same
time, not
supernatural, not miracles, and not trickery. They happen according to law as
does everything
else, and if the class of men referred to by Lecky, do not bestir themselves,
the credit of
discovering that law, and defining its forms of manifestation, will fall to
persons outside the
charmed circle of the Academy.

Honto Smokes - Eight spirits showed themselves--four Indians and four whites. Honto came first, and went through her
usual performance, "materializing" shawls, pieces of cloth, and white lace, and
dancing. She moved to the extreme south end of the platform, and stood there
making signs to Horatio Eddy which he did not understand. She was just turning
to go back, when Mrs. Eaton's shrill voice, calling from within the cabinet,
said "She wants to smoke." I filled my own pipe and handed it to Horatio, who
lighted it, and gave it to the squaw; and then we had the astonishing spectacle
of a materialized spirit from the other world, walking about and drawing such
great whiffs from a tobacco-pipe, that the glowing contents of the bowl cast a
ruddy glow upon her coppery features. Alas! for all our poetical fancies about
vapory forms, and snowy robes, and shining wings, and harps of gold--there stood
a smoking squaw before us, in feature, costume and complexion the type of her
race, and with no more appearance of spirituality about her than any of the
women in the room, who sat there regarding her with amazement !

Honto Tries to Sing - Among the latest and most startling phases of the manifestations,
is the actual playing upon a parlor organ by the materialized spirit-girl Honto,
herself. The first instance of the kind occurred on the evening of October 27th.
Mr. Ralph, of Utica, Mr. Pritchard, of Albany, and old Mrs. Cleveland, were all
sitting on the platform, that evening, but were requested to take their seats
among the audience, and the benches were ordered pushed a little farther back
than usual. Honto then reappeared (she had been out before doing some of her
usual tricks), examined the instrument with attention, and, with one foot
working the pedal, played a few notes. She then retired to the cabinet,
reappeared, and, taking a chair that Mr. Ralph placed for her, sat down and
played a wild, disconnected melody as an accompaniment to her voice. This being
her first attempt at singing, the effect was weird in the extreme. Her notes
were harsh, wailing, and discordant, and it was almost enough to freeze one's
blood to hear it. She repeated this performance four times that evening, and it
has been a feature of each night's seance up to the present time. On the evening
of the 21st, I saw her dance, play the organ, smoke a cigar, make a lot
of shawls and tissues, dance a jig with Horatio, take a bracelet from a lady
visitor as a present, and heard her sing. Surely, enough for one spirit to do at
one performance; a leading woman in a variety show could hardly be asked for
more!

after two or three more forms had shown themselves, I saw one of the most
singular creatures that ever excited the wonder of a circle... an African juggler
materializes

It was a living, moving child, which, with its right
thumb in its mouth, nestled its little head in the neck of its bearer, and
passed its chubby left arm about her neck. For the instant it was as palpable
and, no doubt, as material a being as any baby now lying in its mother's arms.
Made from the imponderable atoms floating in the foul air of that chamber, it
was resolved into nothing in an instant of time..
mother's babies materialize

A small booklet on physical mediumship written by Lena Barnes Jefts, the cabinet
attendant of Camp Silver Belle founder and materialization medium Ethel-Post Parrish.
Camp Silver Belle was a spiritualist camp in Ephrata, Pennsylvania operating from 1932 until 1961.

The zipped file also contains a
scholarly article written by an Associate Professor of English, State University
of New York "Ectoplasm : A Report From Experience". The author witnessed the
materialization of famed psychic
researchers Dr. Charles Richet and Dr. William James at Camp Silver Belle.

from booklet - Before a mixed audience of twenty-five people seated in the
materialization room Sunday evening, August 8, 1943, at Camp Silver Belle,
Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Ethel Post Parrish gave an "involuntary test" seance
never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it... materialization
extraordinary

There is ample proof that experimental materialization (ectoplasmic) should take
definite rank as a scientific fact. Assuredly we do not understand it. It is
very absurd, if a truth can be absurd.

Spiritualists have blamed me for using
this word "absurd"; and have not been able to understand that to admit the
reality of these phenomena was to me an actual pain; but to ask a physiologist,
a physicist, or a chemist to admit that a form that has a circulation of blood,
warmth, and muscles, that exhales carbonic acid, has weight, speaks, and thinks,
can issue from a human body is to ask of him an intellectual effort that is
really painful.

Yes, it is absurd; but no matter - it is true.

The task is a hard one; the phenomena being unusual, scientists
and the public have usually rejected them without examination. Nevertheless the facts are facts; they are numerous, authentic,
and startling. In the course of this work there will be given
instances of these facts so numerous, so precise, and so evidential
that I do not see how any unbiased man of science can cast doubt
upon all of them if he consents to look into them.

We have read and re-read, studied and analyzed the works
written on these subjects, and we declare it vastly improbable,
and even impossible, that eminent and upright men such as Sir
William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Reichenbach, A. Russel Wallace,
Lombroso, William James, Schiaparelli, F. W. H. Myers,
Zollner, A. de Rochas, Ochorowicz, Morselli, Sir William Barrett,
Ed Gurney, C. Flammarion, and many others, in spite of their
close attention and their scientific knowledge, should all have been
duped over and over again a hundred times by tricksters or have
been the victims of an astounding credulity. It is not possible
that they should all and always have been so blind as not to perceive
frauds necessarily gross; so incautious as to form conclusions
where no conclusion was legitimately possible; and so unskillful
as never to have made a single unexceptionable experiment. A
Priori, their experiments deserve careful consideration and not to
be contemptuously rejected.

This is not a matter of the opinions of the crowd, which are
of no importance; they are the opinions of scientists, who imagine
that they have laid down boundaries that science cannot overpass.
These boundaries soon become milestones on the road of progress,
as Flammarion remarks. When such men declare that such and
such a phenomenon is impossible, they make an unfortunate confusion
between what is contradictory of known laws and what
is new. This
must be emphasized, for it is the cause of disastrous
misunderstandings.

Geley, after describing very precisely the variations in the
gelatinous embryo-plastic mass, adds, "I do not say merely. There was no
trickery. I say, There was no possibility of trickery. Nearly all the
materializations took place under my own eyes, and I have observed the whole of
their genesis and development." I can say exactly the same.

Anything is possible. Perhaps human powers, whether moral
or material, go far beyond what habitual and daily experience
would lead us to think. It is demonstrated that fluidic emanations
can proceed from the body and develop into human forms. It is
demonstrated that this exteriorization is one of the properties of
living matter.

Although the appearance of a
whole figure is more dramatic than that of a stump taking shape
behind a curtain, both phenomena are essentially the same. A
warm, supple, resisting, articulated, and apparently living hand
identical with a human hand in all points is not more extraordinary than a human personality that looks, walks, and speaks. The
difficulty is the same: the abyss between normal and metapsychic
science is as great whether there be the big, half-formed hand of
John King behind the curtain or Bien Boa rising from the floor
in front of it.

I shall not waste time in stating the absurdities, almost the impossibilities, from a psycho-physiological point of view, of this
phenomenon. A living being, or living matter, formed under our
eyes, which has its proper warmth, apparently a circulation of
blood, and a physiological respiration (as I proved by causing the
form of Bien Boa to breathe into a flask containing baryta water),
which has also a kind of psychic personality having a will distinct
from the will of the medium, in a word, a new human being!
This is surely the climax of marvels! Nevertheless it is a fact.

At the Villa Carmen I saw a fully organized
form rise from the floor. At first it was only a white, opaque spot
like a handkerchief lying on the ground before the curtain, then
this handkerchief quickly assumed the form of a human head level
with the floor, and a few moments later it rose up in a straight line
and became a small man enveloped in a kind of white burnous,
who took two or three halting steps in front of the curtain and
then sank to the floor and disappeared as if through a trapdoor.
But there was no trapdoor.

The materialization of a hand, of a body having all the semblance of life, of a face, or of a phantom, is a fact as assured as
telekinesis; and this makes it all the more difficult to understand, for these
forms seem to have all the attributes of life. Materialized forms are intelligent, and have, at any rate in appearance, a
personality: the hand is warm and living, the eyes move in their
orbits and look, the voice speaks, the respiration disengages carbon dioxide, the legs move, and the hands take hold of objects.

The genesis of seemingly living forms has been observed; they
begin like a nebula, they consolidate in the same way as a nebula
condenses into a planet. Garments, veils, and accessories are formed
simultaneously, and all have usually but a transitory existence, vanishing as they came-ceu fumus in auras.

It would seem that the materialization of garments discredits somewhat the
hypothesis that a deceased human being should materialize. Prima facie it was
unlikely that a body dissolved by putrefaction or disintegrated by cremation
should be reconstructed, though the wild hypothesis of an astral body (!) might be advanced.
But what about the astral presentment of a garment, a hat, an eye-glass, or a
walking-stick? This is the height of folly. It seems to me much wiser to verify
without pretending to understand, and to admit that any explanation we can give
can hardly escape being ridiculous.

To pretend that Bien Boa was a doll is more absurd
still; he walked and moved, his eyes could be seen looking round,
and when he tried to speak his lips moved.

He seemed so much alive that, as we could hear his breathing,
I took a flask of baryta water to see if his breath would show
carbon dioxide. The experiment succeeded. I did not lose sight
of the flask from the moment when I put it into the hands of Bien
Boa who seemed to float in the air on the left of the curtain at a
height greater than Marthe could have been even if standing up. While he blew
into the tube the bubbling could be heard.

A comical incident occurred at this point.
When we saw the baryta show
white (which incidentally shows that the light was good), we cried "Bravo". Bien Boa then vanished, but reappeared three times, opening and closing the
curtain and bowing like an actor who receives applause.

These phenomena are very
remarkable, not only from the theoretical point of view with respect to
ectoplasms, but because they furnish decisive proof of their objectivity. No
legerdemain can produce a living hand that melts in the hand that holds it. I
have seen the form of Bien Boa disappear into the floor under my eyes.

"I have had strange experiences in my psychic investigations during the last
twenty years. Refusing to be limited by accepted laws, I have devoted my thought
to conditions prevailing beyond what is generally termed the material, and by
combining and blending the mental and vital, with the tangible or physical
forces, I have been able to have speech with those long thought dead. As a
result I have found an unknown country about and beyond this Earth, and I would
not go from this world of men without leaving a record of what I have learned.
We are but custodians of knowledge as of wealth, and it is the duty of every one
to give to others that which he has acquired, whenever it will add to human
happiness. "

"When man becomes satisfied that beyond the physical there
is another world, inhabited by all the countless so-called dead, where those
whom he has loved and lost, live and work, the purse-strings will be loosened,
means will be provided, the spirit of exploration will be revived...... But until the public intellect is
startled, until the thought of the world is aroused, a few of us unaided must
work alone."

This research has been a source of great pleasure and profit to me. In the
beginning I looked upon the death change with horror. I recall the casket
containing the mortal remains of my mother lowered into a grave on a bleak April
day, the pitiless rain, the biting winds, the lowering clouds. After the frozen
earth had fallen into the open grave, I, a boy, walked alone, and then and there
resolved that I would never rest content until I had solved the problem there
presented and come to know, - if it was given man to learn, - something of that
great change. Whether I have succeeded or not you must judge."

Prominent Buffalo, New York attorney Edward C. Randall's
700+ session/ twenty year learning experience with the direct voice medium Emily
French. Priceless knowledge of the conditions of the etheric world that awaits
us all beyond death.

"I have heard other voices - voices of those
the world calls dead - on more than seven hundred nights, covering a period of
twenty-two years, aided by a wonderful psychic, I talked with those in the after
life, they using their own vocal organs just as I did."

A description of the afterlife from one there by direct voice
:

"I really cannot give you an adequate description...... It is so marvelous and so stupendous that it would not be possible for
any one still on the earth to grasp its significance. ... It is a wondrous land of light,
where the beauties of nature, as seen on the earth, are brought to perfection.
There we have sea, sky, hills, mountains, valleys and grassy plains, in all
their beauty of form and coloring, but without blemish. There are no barren or
desolate places and there is none of man's handiwork to mar all this loveliness.

"There are forests of noble trees, great rivers, waterfalls, lakes, streams
of all sizes, all crystal clear, and lovely meadows carpeted with the most beautiful flowers, over which hover
myriads of gorgeous butterflies. There are countless numbers of the most
beautiful birds everywhere. Animals of all kinds abound too.. Some of them are
dainty and graceful, and others are very stately and dignified. It is one vast
panorama of loveliness, for those who have eyes to see. "

"I understand fully," another spirit said, "that I have left my physical
body. I was fully conscious when the change was taking place. My first thought
was that I did not want a post-mortem of my earth body, and I was relieved when
I knew it was not to be done. This is a beautiful world, in which I live, with
opportunities beyond your conception. When earth conditions do not bind me, I
can attend great lectures, and in temples of music hear celestial song. But I am
bound to earth by the sorrow of my father and mother. They brood and weep, and
sorrow--for me as one dead, and that holds me like bands of steel, so that I can
only at times do what other boys do. They don't understand that I am more alive
than ever before, but until they give me happier thoughts my progression is
stayed and I am as unhappy as they are. And I could be so happy and accomplish
so much, if they would let me go. Won't you go and tell them what I have said,
and change their thoughts? Tell them that death is life boundless and endless,
and our sphere is filled with happiness. Please promise."

Chapters Include :

THE DEATH CHANGE
AFTER DISSOLUTION
WHERE IS THE AFTER LIFE?
VOICES OF THE DEAD
MATERIALITY OF THE UNIVERSE
LIGHT IN THE SPIRIT WORLD
HOMES IN THE AFTER LIFE
SPIRIT OCCUPATIONS
POVERTY IN THE AFTER LIFE
CHILD LIFE BEYOND
EARTHBOUND
HELPING THE DEAD
SPIRIT INFLUENCE

A collection and analysis of Dr. Funk's and others
investigations into various spiritual phenomena and communications, most notably
the direct voice mediumship of Emily S. French and a number of communications
from his departed colleague, Dr. Richard Hodgson.

"The
information which her voices furnished is entirely beyond the possibilities of
any system of trickery. There can be no question as to this. That she possesses
some power not possest by ordinary mortals must be conceded. It seems like a fairy story, yet it is a true story, I myself
have seen these wonders. I only know that far away, hundreds of miles over the hills
on the banks of the Ohio River, there sits an elderly and frail woman in a
chair, and kings could well afford to trade their power for hers."
Mrs
Elizabeth Blake's case of direct voice in the light

from
Edward. C. Randall's "The Dead Have Never Died" - the 'dead'
Dr. Funk returns to speak by
direct voice through Emily French. Always the fence straddler and always
afraid of his scientific peer's opinions if he took a definite positive
stance on psychic matters Dr. Funk expresses his regret for not having used his
position and knowledge more so to enlighten mankind when in the body.

University of Leipsic professor of physics and astronomy Johann Zollner's
work with medium Henry Slade most well known for his slate writing feats. Knots
tied in endless cords, materialization of hands, disappearance and reappearance
of solid objects, matter through matter experiments, Zollner's theory of the
fourth dimension.

A clergyman of the Church of England's search to solve the
problem of all problems--the survival of the soul after death. An account of his
and others experiences with the direct voice through the Scottish direct voice
medium Moore sisters.

A series of four books produced during the
period 1890 to1903 in Spring Hill, Kansas by the dictations of visible
full-form spirit materializations through the mediumship of William W. Aber.
The primary leaders of the spirit team were Prof. William Denton - a
spiritualist in life, Dr. Reed, electricity pioneer Prof.
Michael Faraday and USA founding father and early champion of human rights
Thomas Paine.1700 pages of direct testimony from the world beyond.

Spirit contributor Emanuel Swedonborg on the "Rending the Vail" series -
Here are thousands of sentences like polished crystals and the most
beautiful cut diamonds, and the light they reflect is the light from the
spirit world for they reveal the secrets of earthly conditions in your world.

Dr. Reed : "You see me part these curtains and you see me standing in the parting; you hear
the words of this voice back to you from beyond the tomb. The words cease, this
form dissolves away, the curtains close and there is only this thin vail between
us. It would seem that a demonstrative revelation like this from the world
eternal ought to gladden your whole world."

Then Thomas Paine rises up outside the cabinet; we all recognize and speak
to him, and he responds in good oral speech. Our visitor asked: "Are you the
veritable Thomas Paine of American Revolutionary history?" The spirit
answered, "I am he," and, raising his hands and eyes upward, passed out of
our sight, seemingly going down through the solid floor, and instantly is
standing full form in the cabinet door, five or six feet from where he went
down as above stated, saying, "Well, friends, here is Thomas Paine again,"
and simply vanished...psychic writings of Thomas Paine

"When I was on earth, I was persecuted. Little children were taught to
mock me upon the streets. There was no hell dark, dismal, sulphurous enough in
which to punish me for my alleged heresies. Slanderous tongues made their slimy
trail in the very air concerning me. But you can say to them that Thomas Paine passed to the higher life in
peace, assured of the fact that no God of vengeance or an endless hell awaited
him; and that, sometime, somewhere, beyond all hells, in the sweet sunshine of
loving beneficence, his most bitter enemies of earth and Thomas Paine would be
loving brothers, although the people, some of them, thought me so strangely
wicked, indeed, that to their minds no mode of mortal punishment had ever been
invented but what was too good for me"... Thomas Paine on a
theological god and hell

It has been also both spoken and written by certain self-styled scientific
research people that a visible materialization under any conditions is simply a
scientific absurdity and an absolute impossibility, and contrary to every known
natural law.

Here, friends, I wish to say as loudly as I can, so as to be heard all
round your earth, that what is called spirit materialization is in exact accord
with every known law of spirit and of physics...
Thomas
Paine on materialization

You have been told that there is a future life which is revealed, and you can,
and have had the absolute proof to offer: for the only proof is demonstrative
facts through the death of the body. You know that you shall not "die". You
know you have that within you that of which the death of the body is not the
end. You see a gradual development from lower to higher forms of life--one
eternal process moving on, by which higher and higher faculties are developed in
successive organisms, and a gradual evolution of higher powers in the highest
organisms to the very hour of death. Are you then to believe in the sudden and
absolute reversal of all laws of evolution, and the abrogation of any design in
existence--that these highest faculties are capable of no further development,
and the whole course of nature falls shattered in blank annihilation?
Science, Spiritualism, and Theology
- Prof. William Denton

from "Rending the Vail" - When we were singing the familiar "John Brown's body lies mouldering in
the tomb," a form appeared, which we readily recognized to be the make-up of
Abraham Lincoln. This form, standing in the cabinet doorway, gleefully joined
with us in singing. When we reached the point commencing, "We'll hang Jeff Davis* on a sour-apple tree," we saw the form was ceasing to sing with us and about to
return into the cabinet; we stopped singing, thinking that perhaps the spirit
considered that part of the piece rather light literature - as, indeed, it surely
is; but Lincoln, as he retired, said: "Sing on." So we sang on the light
literature part, and as we began the repetition of the words, "We'll hang Jeff
Davis on a sour-apple tree," a form stood in the door and distinctly said:

"No, you won't hang him." "Why not?" said Mr. Pratt. - because I'm here.
This is Jeff Davis himself, and you'll not hang him either." (We
understood the emphatic you'll and either to be sarcastic; that the Government,
notwithstanding much clamor therefore, did not hang him.) Then some of us began
to excuse ourselves for the song, when Davis said: "That is all right. Can't you
take a joke?"

There were remarks in the circle that, in all probability, Jeff Davis felt
secession to be right, as Lincoln did the maintenance of the Union. The spirit
replied, "We now are brothers," and returned into the cabinet.

* Lincoln's adversary as Civil War Confederacy president

from "The Guiding Star" - Galileo : They call us devils. They say we are demons. Well, if we are devils,
who are their Gods? Their Gods were all made of such as we, and shall a stream
rise above its fountain? There never has been anything given for the benefit of
man that did not come to man from our side, and yet they think, they have given
it--even the ministers, after denouncing the good things as of the devil, on
finding out their mistake, turn right around and say : "Behold the great things
we did! " But they would denounce me today for talking to you, just as they did
for telling the people that the world moves; and by and by, they will want to
pass laws to compel people to attend church for spirit communion. They try to
run things today just as they did when they condemned me to the stake.

Circle: Why did you recant ?

Galileo : After due consideration, I concluded that I would rather be a live
coward than a dead hero, and I knew that the world would move on just as well
should I live, as it would if I should die. I knew that my recanting would not
stop it any more than their burning or incarcerating me, would stop it. I was
not like Bruno, he would not recant, and they sent him to spirit life, from
whence he could do greater havoc to the church than he could have done had they
allowed him to live; and I find that from the realm of spirit, I have been
able to do more for man than had I remained on earth until this day.

from "Rending the Vail" - At this seance again comes that tall Cotubamana*, his head resting against the
arch over the cabinet door, this arch being eight feet from the floor. This
form, thus standing, was in a stooped position. He said, in good, plain English:
"I am Cotubamana, of whom your history speaks. I was eleven feet tall."

We asked him to so stand that we could all see his full form from head to
feet, with his feet on the floor, which he did, but in a stooping position;
there not being room to stand straight, from floor to ceiling being only 8 feet
8 inches. Here was an exhibition of a monstrous human frame at least five or six
times the size of Mr. Aber, the medium.

* The giant tribal chief on the island of Haiti during the period of Spanish
exploration

In 1899 the great atheistic philosopher Robert Green Ingersoll made his
transition and joined the Star Circle spirit team as a frequent contributor for
the production of "Beyond the Vail". Though forced to do a complete reversal on
his afterlife views he found that most of his opinions on the theological
absurdities he had fought against were confirmed to be true.

"No, the great and brave Ingersoll, as you have heard, could face the
absurdities of theologians, to the applause of all opponents thereto, but was
not brave enough to stand for the full truth in the face of a whole frowning
world; yet, when it was mine to go, I was made to realize that the supreme hour
had arrived, and beautiful visions of most beautiful things and beings presaged
the glorious dawning, as the things of earth and sorrowing of loved ones in the
mortal faded away....
some
Ingersoll excerpts

Part 1 of the book details English author H. Dennis Bradley and his wife's
development of their own direct voice mediumship. Part 2 deals with his series of
sittings with American direct voice medium George Valiantine when he spent
three months at Bradley's home in England.

from book - "As I pondered the results of my first experiments, I asked myself why,--if
Mrs. Leonard and Valiantine--both perfectly normal persons--could develop this
high form of mediumship starting from the simplest and crudest of beginnings,--it
should not be within my power to achieve the same result, and if I could do so,
why it should not be possible for my wife to do so, and why, indeed, should not
everyone be capable of mediumship"....Bradley
and wife develop the direct voice

I have proved the adamant fact that mediumistic powers are a latent and not
an abnormal faculty in man. That is a discovery of paramount importance. The
simple formula; by which I and my wife developed as mediums may be followed by
all who wish to develop this faculty.

Since my own development, at my suggestion three different people have
started experiments. One was not successful, the second obtained supernormal
physical phenomena, and the third, a very cultured woman, obtained remarkable
physical phenomena immediately, and at the twelfth experiment obtained the
voices.

For two years, night after night, and often for hours upon end, I have
conversed with my dear sister and with my fine friend Warren. Intimate as I was
with them when they were on earth, they are both far nearer to me now than ever
before. Closely connected as we were, I have actually spoken with them more
intimately, and at greater length, since they have passed over than during the
whole of their lives on earth. Together they have been magnificent to me. They
have guarded my material interests, they have tended my physical health during
stress, they have provided me with the certainty of survival, and they have been
the means of spreading a spiritual knowledge, the development of which may be
beyond our dreams.

We are no longer in the realms of physical imagination. We are living in a
world of psychical reality. Literally, hundreds of people have heard Annie and
Warren speaking to me, who will all come forward and testify to this fact.

I say with cold deliberation that if Annie and Warren are not two vivid,
intellectual, and living personalities, then the many ephemeral characters whom
I know on earth and meet and idly chat with in Mayfair, at first nights, at the
theatres, or at the Embassy Club, are either all dead people, or they are mere
figments of my imagination. My spirit friends have given me far more impressive
evidences of their existence than the various social cyphers have given me of
theirs.

There is no death. I have taken pains in the compilation of two big books to
prove that. I have succeeded in establishing direct and practically regular communication with another world,
and this discovery is the greatest step towards knowledge in history.

Christmas Party sitting 1954 - an audio recording of an actual
materialisation session held Jan 5, 1954. Hear the voices of various
materialised entities such as Aunt Agg and the American Indian chief control
Sunrise as Tom narrates the events as they transpire.

If I had secured the voices in the light but once in my life, I still could
point with pride to that achievement. I have secured them, however, hundreds of
times in the light, and often over long periods....

What has occurred can happen again. This communication in the light has been
secured by many mediums. It will be obtained by many more. It is as much an
established fact that communication is possible and practicable in the light as
it is that there is communication in any form. - from "The Voice Triumphant"...
Voices in the Sunlight

Again the rapid movement may bring the trumpet to within a fraction of an
inch of a sitter's nose, so that the wind caused by the movement is heard and
felt. Repeatedly the trumpet will do this in front of a sitter, then flash away
to caress gently the face of another sitter on the opposite side of the room.
The control of the trumpet is perfect....
Trumpet phenomena

As the voice went on I realized that the style of Chinese used was identical
with that of the Chinese Classics, edited by Confucius two thousand five hundred
years ago. Only among the scholars of Archaic Chinese could one now hear that
accent and style, and then only when they intoned some passage from the ancient
books. In other words, the Chinese to which we were now listening was as dead
colloquially as Sanskrit or Latin, and had been so for even a greater length of
time. If this was a hoax, it was a particularly clever one, far beyond the scope
of any of the sinologues now living. I was determined to test the matter to the
full limit....Psychic Adventures in New York.

At other seances, arranged under controlled conditions in Tokyo and Kyoto during the medium's
visit to Japan in 1958, materialized spirits appeared: One was recognized as the deceased father
of Professor Iki Goto, D.E., of Tokyo University
an investigator at the seance. The spirit walked out of the cabinet down the
room, turned around, and walked slowly back into the cabinet. Some fifteen
minutes later, the spirit appeared again. This time he had his sleeves rolled up
and showed a scar he had received while in his "earth life." This phenomenon,
illuminated by white light was witnessed by some three hundred sitters who
marveled and wondered .... an article on
Keith Milton Rhinehart

From William Dudley Pelley's "Why I Think The Dead Are Alive"

Then it began to assume the form of a human
torso, with arms and legs growing at the corners. A protuberance like a head
came out. What I was actually watching was the "build-up" of a mature human
body--a woman's body. Believe it or not, by the end of ten to twelve minutes a
fully formed and respectably dressed girl of some twenty-five to thirty years
was fully molded in the center of the group and to all intents and purposes
quite the counterpart of any of the mortal women in that room....Wonder
beneath a chair

Gertrude handed back the photographs. Suddenly, with a surge of emotions, she threw both arms around
her father and mother. The three of them embraced there--like the three normal
persons, which they were--loath to give each other up. Could that father and
mother ever conceive thereafter that their beloved daughter was dead, or that
she had "perished"? What Mosaic numskull was it who had written back over the
years, "The dead know not anything," and "There is no device nor wisdom in the
grave whither thou goest" Rubbish!....A
Bertie Lilly Candler session

The "snowball" lost its rotundity and became elongated
vertically. It oscillated, it writhed, it mounted higher and higher. Reaching a
pillar of five feet two or three, it gave a peculiar shuddering twist. Then even
in ruby light I blinked my eye. A particularly handsome young woman stood before
me, gowned in white. Her long chestnut hair fell in curls down her back from
under a Juliette cap. She was personable, she was graceful. In a voice whose
chuckle did not cancel its culture, she accosted me..."Well, Daddy, how do you
like that?" I could scarcely speak. "You're...Harriet?" I managed to
exclaim on my second attempt...Pelley's
daughter materializes for the first time

The skeptic with orthodox reflexes, who never has
witnessed such phenomena, is puzzled or caustic because he does not know what
happens. How in the name of sound sense can persons who have vacated mortal
vehicles--and these vehicles been interred in cemeteries--possibly "come back" in
organic equipment and give every evidence of being alive in former aspects of
personality?... an
explanation for the light-body and materialization

an interesting tidbit from Pelley -"I had known through Detroit friends that Mr. Henry Ford, the auto magnate, a
profound esoteric scholar during his lifetime, had retained the exclusive
services of an outstanding medium to enable him to counsel with Mr. Abraham Lincoln in
the management of his gargantuan motor empire, and that Lincoln appeared to Mr.
Ford in materialized form constantly. I have talked with reliable and reputable
persons who were present at some of the sessions. I understand it was because of
this association that the highest priced automobile made by Mr. Ford, bore the
Great Emancipator's name."

Alan Crossley --one of the world's foremost authorities on the
materialization phenomena :

It was one of the most momentous occasions of my life. After 40 years
or so experience in psychic matters, particularly physical mediumship, and I
have sat with the finest mediums this century, the events now unfolding at
Leicester are not matched by anything I have seen before.

The ultimate in personal experiences came when my wife Irene, who passed
four years ago, manifested to me on no less than four occasions with
individual mannerisms and characteristics so familiar to me. With her final
visit she brought a single red rose and kissed me. Well, what can one say in
the light of such happenings, except that it was not only very moving, but the
most wonderful experience of my life....
a Rita Goold session

Watch Mum. I will show you all of me! And he did. The torch was just an
ordinary torch, believe me. He started by showing his feet, which were bare--the
familiar knees. So familiar to me as I remembered--like any other mother
would--the number of times I had scrubbed them. He wore little shorts and a
T-shirt. His dear familiar hands with their square nails, just like his daddy.
Then up to his face. So beautiful! A spirit child is so lovely one's mind or
voice finds it hard to convey a description. I can only say that it was just as
I had known it. There he stood in all his glory! Hair--spiky as always. Eyes--so,
so blue--which looked into mine with the love that only a son can share with his
mother. How can I explain further?

"Materialization" is by all odds the
most difficult aspect of survival evidence for us to accept with our rational
mind. In 1972 I organized a team of British and American scientists to go to
Brazil to try to capture on video tape or movie film, evidence of
materialization. For various reasons we were not successful in the 2-week period
which we could spend in Brazil, but I thought you might be interested in seeing
these few photographs of what I consider a successful demonstration
of the phenomenon of materialization, previously accomplished by a team of 14 medical
doctors, psychiatrists and lay persons in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

From "They Walked Among Us" - Louie Harris

Eventually, it was the turn of one of the substitute sitters to be greeted.
As Rohan was about to take his hands in welcome, the man sprang forward and
grabbed him! Throwing his arms around the spirit figure, he held on to him
tightly, shouting, "I've got you!" The sitter was obviously convinced he had
captured the draped medium in the act of duplicity, masquerading as a spirit
form.

As Rohan's figure quickly dematerialised there was a loud groan from Alec in
the cabinet. Then came a cry of pain as the ectoplasm swiftly returned to his
body with the impact of a sledge-hammer. The treacherous sitter fell dazed to the floor as the "solid" body he had
held so tightly minutes before disappeared. I threw myself on him, desperately
flailing with my hands, sobbing: "Oh don't! You'll kill my husband! You fool,
you'll kill him!" The man looked up at me, his eyes wide, terrified....
Press
exposure fails

about one yard from my chair, I noticed a light upon the
carpet, phosphorescent in appearance, about the size of a 25-cent piece or
English shilling, which soon became more extensive, and apparently rose as a
vapor from which evolved curling flame like white and purple light, until
suddenly it took on tangible form, and developed what all the sitters agreed
upon, as being beyond doubt a beautiful young woman, clad in draperies of creamy
white, bearing supported or suspended above her head a purple ball of light,
which, however, seemed physically separate from any connection with the head;
and which illumined the entire room, and simultaneously the air was impregnated
with odor of a most delicate and agreeable perfume, resembling nothing I had
ever before inhaled. All over the draperies and coverings of this apparition
were small star-spangles as if they were most brilliant electric star lights...An
Effie Moss materialization session

Questions and answers from Dr. King's spirit guide, Hypatia
of Alexandria, (370 - 415 AD), the Neoplatonic philosopher and
mathematician deemed to be the wisest of all women of her day who was brutally
murdered by a fanatical sect of Christian monk supporters of Cyril because
she taught science and learning which were considered pagan.

Dr. King's high spirit guide, who alleges she is the daughter of Theon, next
walked out of the cabinet into full view of all present. Words are hardly adequate to describe in a fitting manner this
beautiful materialization. Tall and queenly with brilliant jewels scintillating
at every movement, Hypatia was glorious to behold...Hypatia
materializes at a J.B. Jonson session

Hypatia brings her philosopher
colleagues Socrates, Plato and Aristotle for a talk

Again another psychic phase I had succeeded in, by making an astral flight and
appearing along with other personalities at a materializing seance held by the
Intellectual Circle in Kansas City, on the night of January 25th, 1910. On that
occasion my astral body was visible, and my voice was audible to judge Dill, and
the other sitters...
Astral
flights

"I ask any man, be he skeptic or critic, to deny if he can, the assertion that
no substitute in all creation could duplicate the voice and conversation of your
wife successfully, with both of which you were daily familiar for quarter of a
century. But when these features are added to by the presentation of her
transient form, together with its operation as a perfect duplication of herself
in human life, in all its varied circumstances, which you can call to mind; and
further that these conditions are presented correctly no matter when the time,
nor where the place, nor who the instrument by whose presence it is made
possible to occur, will not all this kill the prejudice, the fraud or
substitution hypothesis, along with all other suggested hypotheses; and point to
the necessity for an awakened mind to comprehend as I do, a demonstrated truth?
In concluding my reference to my wife, I now assert that the accumulated
evidence, from first to last, is so profoundly convincing to my senses,
intelligence, my intuition and my reason, that I now declare that I am quite as
sure of her continuity, return, communion, identity and human personality as I
am of my own existence; and this, sofar at least, I have been constantly able
to demonstrate."

"I pray the great and exalted ones of spirit life, to help me to be with the
great thinkers that I may, with the great thinkers--whose writings appear on
these pages--be of use to men of earth, by proving that spirits come back to
earth.

I pray that the darkness of doubt may float away as Dawn of the Awakened
Mind brings truth and light to those who were born blind in their minds to
this great truth.

Continuity of life makes all life complete, and proves that spirits can and
do come back and write to all mankind.

I, the leader of the band around this physician, who has written this book,
send you, through him, my earnest prayer that all the darkness of ignorance
shall fade eternally away."

As I examined the walls and everything connected with the temporary cabinet,
I have no hesitation in saying that the forms that came from or appeared in it
were materialized beings. I was in this cabinet several times during the seance
often with two forms at the same time. Once I sat between them, an arm around
each, satisfying myself of their objective reality as well as if I had been
walking with them outside in the room. While thus holding them, the one
encircled by my left and whose right arm was around my neck, instantly disappeared, without the
slightest indication of any movement; she was there, and she was not there.
Still holding the one encircled by my right arm, I rose and with my left hand
drew the curtain aside, so that I could see everything behind it. There was not
the faintest trace of the beautiful being that a moment before, I had so firmly
held, and with whom I had been talking....Seances with Mrs.
Fairchild

I have witnessed the processes of materialization and of dematerialization in
the middle of the room, several feet from the cabinet--have taken hold of the
hands of these beings, and gone down with them to the floor, until the last
things that disappeared were the hands that were in mine.

I have been taken into the cabinet by one of these forms, and with my left
arm around the form (to all appearance as solid as my own), have put my right
hand on the entranced medium, and while in this position have seen a white,
luminous cloud rise slowly from the side of the medium until it reached the height of nearly six feet. I could have passed my
hand through it without resistance. In a few seconds it condensed into a human
form that cordially greeted and shook hands with me, having a hand as
substantial as my own. It was the form of "Auntie," the control, who greeted me
with "How do you do? What do you think of this ?

In the materializing seance come, for the time being, living, breathing,
intelligent, human forms, that are not confederates or personations by the
medium. The probability, or even possibility, they offer of
scientific evidence of the existence of man after death, commends them to the
serious consideration of every intelligent person.

I heard the voice of the control talking in front of me. Then there appeared
straight in front of me and about eighteen inches away, a phosphorescent replica
of a typical anatomical larynx. It was shown in such a position that I could see
clearly its construction.

Inside the larynx there were the vocal cords or folds. These cords, when one
is speaking, move from side to side. When the voice is not being used the cords
are motionless. While I was looking at this spirit larynx, I heard the control
talking. As he spoke, the vocal cords moved in exactly the way I would expect if
I were able to watch a human larynx at work....Doctor examines
spirit larynx

Then the swirling ectoplasmic effluvia glowed from the floor and quickly took on the
form of a girl. Before the figure was complete, it spoke..."Marc, dear--Marc, dear."

Those who know me well call me Marc;
those who know me better call me Marc, dear. so I knew this must be a "familiar
spirit." I got up and walked over until there was a space of less than four feet
between us. "Yes?" I said, "Who are you"

The answer was fraught with
disappointment. "Don't you know me?"

I did not. I had no idea who this
might be. I had really been too absorbed to think very much about personal
contact with the spirits....Nor did I propose to offer any hint of whom I
thought she might represent. No leads, I determined. "I do not know you. Who are you?"

"Paula" came the answer. The name and soft manner in which it was
uttered brought the sudden unfolding of a forgotten drama. Twenty years ago my
sister Paula had died at the age of twenty-three...Camp
Chesterfield seances

Fraudulent infrared filmed materializations at Camp Chesterfield present a glaring example of why in spite
of the massive amount of evidence that can be presented the mainstream still is
inclined to view it all as fraud.

From the Psychic Observer July, 1960

No, you and you alone are going to have that proof so desperately needed for so
long. The processed film is returned. You load the filmholder...the projector
starts to grind.
As it grinds on, you sink lower and lower into your chair.... you cannot
believe your eyes! It can't be, you say to yourself. It can't be!... But it is. Cameras don't lie.
There aren't any materialized spirits—only actors—people popping in and out of partially concealed doors—all
quick-change artists waving cotton gauze ectoplasm.....
Infared Motion Pictures Reveal
This Great Deception

they are not interested, even aware of the possibility of man, who once lived
on earth, living on spheres in the atmosphere, communicating. They are more
concerned with worlds which they have been aware for sometime which gradually
are coming closer and closer by the help of science, brought into a great
reality. They are going to discover, much to their surprise, worlds of human
beings who once inhabited earth and who still continue to live in a higher field
of activity .... a transcript of a Sir Oliver Lodge direct voice
recording through Leslie Flint

From "Forty Years of Psychic Research" - Hamlin Garland

From this time forward whispering voices were heard coming from the trumpet
as it floated about the circle. Two of the voices were so strong in tone that I
could distinguish them as individual utterances. One of the speakers was a
brisk, jovial, not too intellectual young man who gave his name as "Wilbur," the
other was the very precise, rather ponderous and oratorical "Dr. Mitchel" who
had spoken to me on the previous night. His speech was cultivated but
old-fashioned. The third voice, sweetly clear, was apparently that of a little
girl who said her name was 'Maudie'...Trumpet
Voices

He told us in terse and definite language, remarkably free from the redundancy
that frequently characterizes mediumistic communications, that the spirits who
show their limbs and faces at the aperture, are actually within the cabinet
(though invisible to material eyes) in their own proper persons, and that the
limbs and faces that are shown undergo a chemical process, analogous to that
adopted by mortals in coating or galvanizing specimens of wood or other
substances and metals...
the
chemical process of materialization

During the evening, my wife's earth form was
dematerialized for a short time. Whilst she held the curtain apart in one hand,
her whole form was distinctly to be seen standing just within. It gradually sank
downward, as if passing through the floor, until it disappeared, and the curtain
closed for a short time, when it was again opened and my wife walked out and
came to me as before....Rematerialization
of the Soul

"For the last seventeen years I have been an
investigator of the alleged spirit phenomena; during which time my leisure, as
well as my inclination, has prompted me to hold converse, through the agency of
many scores of those sensitive and peculiarly organized persons called 'spirit
mediums,' with what I deem to be spirits of the so-called dead; and of the many
hundreds or thousands with whom I have in this way communicated, all that have
referred to the subject alike testify that there is a spiritual form involved in
every human body, and that this form not only retains its natural life and
identity on passing to the higher life, but is clothed in vesture more or less
resplendent and beautiful, or otherwise, in accordance with its moral
attainments or degrees of innocence or guilt, that attached to it at the period
it passed from earth, or which it has since acquired in spirit-life. "With like
unanimity returning spirits allege that under mediumistic conditions they have,
with the aid of some occult alchemy unexplainable to material senses, the power
to extract elements from their surroundings, wherewith they are enabled to
present themselves in an exact resemblance to their earth body, together with
its clothing and peculiarities, and thus enable their earth friends to identify
them, and, in many seances, respond to their loving advances more readily than
they otherwise would. Absurd as this seems to some, and once seemed to me, of
the fact I have now no doubt; nor, with the many and varied experiences I have
had, can I believe that anything will ever shake my belief and acceptance of
it."

From "Neither Dead Nor Sleeping" - May Wright Sewall

Communication between spheres is made possible by
the fact that ether, which is common to both the ante and the post-mortem
planes, and which is believed to be common to all spheres within the Solar
System, has the quality which enables it to receive and transmit vibrations of
all kinds, no matter on what plane or in what source they originate...spirit
lecture
on Communication By Vibration

A female entity came out of the cabinet, went
straight to him and said: "I am your first wife, Bertha, whom you deserted. You
left me alone with our child, and after great sufferings I died. My body is
buried in the cemetery of H., and our daughter lives in great misery in L. Try
to find her and help her; in that way you may compensate the wrong you have
done." Then she vanished, dematerialising in the midst of the floor...The
Deserted Wife

A tall entity came out of the cabinet and said that his name was John King. He went to the first row of
the sitters, where my seat was the most distant. His head was uncovered, and in
the light of the red lamp we could see his reddish face and his dark curly hair.
After speaking to some of the sitters, he said, 'Look at my shape; I shall
dematerialize the lower part of my body.' As soon as he had said this, the lower
part of his body disappeared, and the upper part remained independent in the
air. I did not know what to believe, as I was a little sceptical, but then the
entity floated in front of me and said, a little sharply, 'Can you see me?'

I was obliged to say yes, and the voice said again, 'Put your hand below
me.' I did so, and there was nothing. A moment later he was completely
dematerialized. Another time I saw a materialised figure evaporate into white
mist and disappear through the floor in front of me.

Materialization mediumship; Why the cabinet is necessary; How to make the
spirit cabinet; How to use the spirit cabinet; Spirit phosphorescence;
Appearance of materialized substance; Materialized spirit forms; Scientific
proof of materialization; How to conduct a materializing seance; Trumpet
mediumship; Spirit playing on musical instruments; Independent slate writing;
The state writing circle; Spirit paintings...Genuine
Mediumship

From "Voices of the Passed" - Major J.H. Webster

An elongated megaphone, made of aluminum, stands upright on a table....Some few minutes after commencing the sitting the megaphone wobbles on the
table, sometimes beating time to the music. We know then that our invisible
collaborators are getting to work, and the megaphone soon rises from the table.
Sometimes it drops to the floor once or twice, being replaced by the member of
the circle nearest to it. Then it becomes more stabilized in its movements and
floats round the circle...The Dead Speak

From "Where Two Worlds Meet" - Arthur Findlay

The scientists' excuse is that Spiritualists are
dealing with phenomena which cannot be repeated at will, that what they--the
scientists--are interested in is something which they can prove does happen at
any time of the day or night. That attitude is stupid as, to be truly
scientific, we must take things as Nature gives them to us and adapt our
experiments accordingly. What happened at the Sloan Circle, and has happened
elsewhere on many occasions, can, however, be repeated. For fifty years Glasgow
University could have had one or more representatives taking a verbatim record
of what occurred at the Sloan Circle and making a careful check on everything
said or done. They could have filled a hundred volumes as large as this book
with their reports, and given to the world much scientific knowledge which the
etheric scientists, including the doctors, would have been only too glad to give
them.

That is what I advised our scientists to do
thirty years ago, particularly the psychologists, the biologists and the
anthropologists of Glasgow University, because they had one of the world's
greatest Direct Voice mediums on their doorstep. It could all have been done
free and for nothing, because Sloan never wished to earn money from his
wonderful gift. They would have discovered ectoplasm, something that really
exists but is unknown to official science which is as ignorant about this
amazing stuff as a new-born baby. They could have taken hundreds of photographs
of ectoplasm by infra-red light, and seen it billowing out of Sloan's mouth, and
from his other orifices, like a squirming snake. They could have analysed it,
besides doing many other things which would occur to intelligent people,
they did nothing and remained encamped on Gilmorehill, willfully ignorant of
the wonderful events which were taking place in a certain house in the valley
below them ...Scientific Indifference

From "Psychic Light" - Maud Lord-Drake

Thus was arranged one of the most surprising materializing seances that the
medium had held, up to that date. During the seance this same penitent and
contrite skeptic was called to the cabinet by the spirit of a young lady. When
he approached she eagerly reached forth her hand and took his, saying "My
brother." He recognized her face, and in his excitement almost screamed to her
to give her name. She spoke distinctly, "Ella."

"My God! my God! It's my sister," said the now thoroughly convinced skeptic.
He almost fainted, and was led back to his seat by his smiling and thoroughly
triumphant companions, to whom he had only a few hours before ridiculed spirit
return... Ring
from the grave

Gambier Bolton
WORKING HYPOTHESIS
That under certain known and reasonable conditions of temperature, light, etc.,
entities, existing In a sphere outside our own, have been demonstrated again and
again to manifest themselves on earth in temporary bodies materialised from an,
at present, undiscovered source, through the agency of certain persons of both
sexes, termed Sensitives, and can be so demonstrated to any person who will
provide the conditions proved to be necessary for such a demonstration.

When these claims were first brought to my notice I realised at once that I was
face to face with a problem which would require the very closest investigation;
and I then and there decided to give up work of all kinds, and to devote years,
if necessary, to a critical examination of these claims ...

The result has been that the apparently impossible has been
proved to be possible; and I accept them whole-heartedly, admitting that our working hypothesis has
been proved beyond any possibility of doubt, and that these materialised
entities can manifest themselves today to any person who will provide the
conditions necessary for such a demonstration.

Red Cloud
Seven years before your Great War of 1914 we in
the World of Spirit realised that the earth was heading for disaster; and the
Masters of the Spheres seeing the gathering war clouds sent out messengers to
the four corners of the heavenly spheres seeking volunteers for the earth. I, with many others, hearing the Voice in the
spheres, volunteered to come back, and there are at the present moment many
working on or close to this earth who returned with me at that time.

During 1925 Emily and I began experimenting in our own home. After three
months, mediumship began to unfold with the result that for almost fifteen years
after, hardly a week elapsed when I did not speak to our son, John, my mother or
other members of our family through the remarkable mediumship of my wife. I
acknowledge this blessing with the deepest gratitude and humility. But we made
many sacrifices, both socially and materially. It was not an easy way to live in
a world of rank materialism. However, it is the price one must be willing to pay
for a treasure money cannot buy.

The manifesting personality I have just mentioned had hardly reentered the
cabinet when a slim masculine form appeared. The rapid appearance of each
personality is worthy of attention. The most clever actor, with all sorts of
assistance and trappings, could not have accomplished these lightning-like
transformations. The slim masculine form who now stood before us and conversed
happily with his sister, Mrs. Remmers, was fully attired in evening clothes. I
studied carefully the entire manifestation, from the wavy hair down to the
patent leather shoes. Unbelievable, isn't it? Well, I can only tell you what I
have seen. If you question my sincerity or qualifications as an investigator,
then apply your own effort and investigate for yourself, just as I did. These
facts will some day grip men on earth with astonishing effect; thus far, only a
minority know that they are true...
Materializations

One hour video on Google video - Tom Harrison
narrates the development of his mother
Minnie's mediumship to the point of direct voice and full form materializations.
Interviews with some other circle members who witnessed the phenomena...

The associate editor of the Scientific American
attends a session with the direct voice medium John Sloan of Arthur Findlay's
"On the Edge of the Etheric" fame - My First
Seance

From "And the Sound of a Voice" - V. Carleton Jones

Our first experiments were with one microphone. We found that when the
trumpet was pointed away from the microphone, to speak to one of the sitters,
and the voice was weak, the microphone was unable to record the sound. To
overcome this it was obvious that a number of microphones would have to be used
to pick up the sound of the voice, irrespective of the direction in which the
trumpet was pointing... Recording
Spirit Voices

From "Daylight Materialization
and Psychic Power" - James Jacob Dickson

The seance was proceeding in soft light. I had seen
and talked with several of my Spirit loved ones, and was meditating in the calm
and peaceful atmosphere of the Rev. Dickson's seance room, when again the
cabinet curtains parted and a tall, squareshouldered figure in Colonial attire
stepped forth to within less than an arm's length of where I sat and in a
sonorous voice said 'Joseph Hewes.' (Joseph Hewes was an illustrious member of
our family back in the Revolutionary War days, and this was his first appearance
to me.)

Delighted and astonished, I said 'It's wonderful to have you come,
particularly because I was thinking of you on the way to this meeting' He
replied 'I was with you and caused you to think of me.' Then he walked toward
the window, saying: "Minnie Brown suggested that I open the blinds and let you
see me in the daylight, if I had sufficient strength. I watched him draw the
heavy curtains aside, open the blinds and let in the sunlight! Then, standing
tall and handsome in the sunlight, he said:

"Now you can say you saw the Spirit of Joseph Hewes, a Signer of the
Declaration of Independence, in the bright sunlight, one hundred and
seventy-five years after that memorable event.'

"'Yes,' I answered, practically breathless with excitement, 'and I think it
was your vote that decided the matter of our country's independence!'

The important fact as to this successful test, with test conditions,
conducted with the cooperation of a materialization medium of unexcelled
usefulness in demonstrating spirit appearances by intelligent spirits, is that
every person present, each using the infra-red viewer in turn, saw all that took
place in that room all the time...Snooperscope

I have come in contact with several classes of investigators, working with a
view to establishing some pet theory or other of their own....who begin their
enquiry with the assumption that all persons except themselves are dishonest,
all opinions except their own biased or without legitimate foundation, all
observation except their own unreliable, all recorded phenomena unfounded unless
they have witnessed them; all phenomena obtained under other conditions than
those laid down themselves unworthy of credence. Their verdict shortly summed up
amounts to this, "We have found fraud, consequently there is no truth...Investigators
I Have Known

When she disappears or dematerializes it is as follows: "Stepping forward
to show herself and be identified by any strangers then present, she slowly and
deliberately opens out the veil-like superfluous drapery; expanding it she places it over
her head, and spreads it around her like a great bridal veil, and then
immediately but slowly sinks down, becoming less bulky as she collapses, dematerialising her body beneath the cloud-like drapery until it has little or
no resemblance to Yolande. Then she further collapses until she has no
resemblance to a human form, and more rapidly sinks down to fifteen or twelve
inches. Then suddenly the form falls into a heaped patch of drapery - literally Yolande's left-off clothing which slowly but visibly melts into nothingness....Yolande

Of all proofs of survival, what is called the "Direct Voice" is the most
compelling. I have heard it on scores of occasions, and in many languages,
sometimes in good light, and even with several voices speaking at the same
time...The
Direct Voice

An Indian healer materialized with a black snake. He said his name was Chief
Black Snake. The Chief held the snake in his hands. It measured at least four
feet in length and was about the size of a broom handle in circumference, though
I would judge a little bit larger. The snake's eyes were plainly visible to me
as was also the forked tongue, which moved rapidly in the usual snake fashion.
The Chief said he wanted to touch the snake's head to my face, so of course I
let him do so. I am not a lover of reptiles in general but I knew that Star
Bright and Dr. Burkett would not have let the snake be brought into the seance
if it had been other than a helpful vibration. The Chief gave a healing message
as he gently held the snake against my cheek. He touched at least two others
with his black snake before he and the snake dematerialized.

A mothers experiences in contacting her son after so-called death primarily
through the materialization mediumship of Lula Taber.

In Modern Psychic Mysteries at Millesimo Castle Mrs. Gwendolyn Kelley Hack
has united all the reports of the memorable psychic investigations which took
place during the years 1927 and 1928 in the mediaeval Castle of Millesimo in the
Province of Savona, Italy, the property of Marquis Carlo Centurione Scotto. The
principal phenomenon which we obtained was that of the Direct Voice, combined
with many other important manifestations, such as extraordinary apports and
asports, the transportation from a distance of extremely large and heavy
articles, the playing of musical instruments while they floated round the room,
the materialization of human hands and feet, the levitation of the medium to a
height of over six feet above the ground in the large arm-chair in which he was
seated, noisy duels between invisible fighters; and finally, the culminating
phenomenon, in the dramatic bodily disappearance of the medium.